Maria Costello marked hew twentieth year competing at the Isle of Man TT in style, by taking her best-ever finish in the Bennetts Lightweight TT last week.

The 42 year-old from Northamptonshire finished in 12th place on her Kawasaki Supertwin.

Maria started from 31st on the road but rode a superb opening lap of 112.656mph (from a standing start), to place her 13th in a field of over 50 riders.

Lap two was even faster and, despite having to slow for a pit stop to take on fuel, she lapped at 113.128mph to hold onto a strong 15th place.

Costello’s pit crew produced one of her best pit stops and refuelled the Kawasaki in great time to send the only female solo competitor out for the two remaining laps.

Unfortunately clutch problems hindered her progress slightly and, as she crossed the finishing line, she lost out on 11th place by just 0.065 seconds.

A new personal best finish of 12th place and a bronze replica to add to the growing collection made a good present to mark Maria’s 20th TT anniversary.

资料提供 [ Isle of Man TT ]